Thursday, October 27, 2011

I listened to the taped archive of Oct 21st's Comment Please radio show, hosted by Darryl Berger. The guests were the Democratic candidates for Bucks County commissioner. These are rough notes, not intended as a full transcript. Voters are encouraged to listen to the interview themselves and research the candidates to make an informed decision.

Marseglia
incumbent, Ansinn is the Doylestown Borough Council President

Marseglia – bio,
social worker in county for 25 years, about 4 years ago I decided one of the
best things I could do is help county improve social services

Ansinn – also
local, background in business, created businesses, created jobs, board
president of library board, bring business acumen to do good things in county.

DB: minority
commissioner a watchdog position?

DM: many
things , many of the employees comfortable coming to me and telling me of problems
and I go to newspaper or police or wherever needed. Now putting county
commissioner meeting agenda up days in advance, now have to file applications
for county jobs and checking qualifications. Now someone in charge of
keeping track of county cars and who has and how used. First 3 years I
was excluded a great deal, shown materials but not allowed to keep them.
Current county supervisor better about this, still not equal access

DB: platform
points

DA: number 1
is issue of jobs, Bucks has higher unemployment than neighboring
counties. Problem is county has not taken a proactive role. Second
issue is corruption. Indictments and guilty verdicts. Third, county
has been deficit spending for last 5 years.

DB: what can
government do?

DM: try to
encourage people and county to buy America and buy Bucks. Work on
infrastructure. Problems dredging Del River. People aren’t going to
come here if they can’t get here. Expand companies that are here.
Best thing we can do is help companies already here. Zoning problems,
regulation problems. Appoint someone as economic development
officer.

DB:
developing plan and implementing it

DA: For
Commissioner Cawley and former Congressman Murphy put together panel and asked
what can county do better. They put together plan. First thing is hire
an economic development officer. Marshalling resources in Bucks, county has
7 chambers of commerce, no one providing single point of contact.
Streamlining, easier to do business.

DM: Teva
wanted to be in Warrington went to Philly, hospital in Lower Makefield, no one
to direct them to other places in Bucks.

DB:
Warrington didn’t want Teva.

DA: Other places
in the county would have welcomed them with open arms. No one directed
them there. Lost to NE Philly. That’s the problem, don’t have
leadership. Economic initiative is leadership.

DB:
transportation infrastructure, 202 parkway project

DA: tough to
say, project has gone on so long, that’s just one part of transportation
infrastructure. People don’t know we have a port here in Bucks, Diane
had dredged so larger ships could come in. Project long time in
coming. Pales with what happens in upper part of county, development with
no planning.

DB: enough
coordination among different levels of government? one congressman, state
delegation, municipal officials, role of county?

DM: An economic
development officer, could meet with each municipality at least twice a year, better
use of planning commission. Be like Chester County, don’t provide open
space money unless project is part of county plan. Has to be somebody
that everyone knows to go to

DA: We have
good people on planning commission, need to be more proactive, need support,
shouldn’t shoot down their ideas

DB: justice
center, parking garage, cost about $84M, you have been critical

DA: in Doylestown
this is in our backyard. Our chief concern, what will happen with old
building. They wanted to knock down old garage, build new building, but
no plan on what to do with old building. County still can’t say how all
space in new building will be used. Don’t know how people will move from
parking garage 1000 ft from building to building

DM: If we’re
in office with access to plans and legal teams. Is it possible for
current contractor to continue. Maybe shift some work to old
building.

DA: tough
thing is, earlier this year before contract award. A judge said project a
rathole. We need to evaluate. We need to be in office to do
that.

DB: was this
necessary at all?

DM: criminal
court we did need a new area, criminals and defendants are in same area now,
that should change, but we could still use existing 6 courtrooms.

DB: nothing
similar in area to charges against row officers, Wills area, county workers
being coerced into doing political work paid for by county funds. Trial
scheduled for November

DM: one of
about a dozen scandals in last 4 years. Culture is a problem. Want
to open things up and give a fresh perspective. Says grand jury
report says CEO of county knew what was going on. It is much bigger than
one row dept. going on for decades.

DB: what
would you do?

DA: this is
institutionalized corruption. You have those problems when you have the
curtains closed. Hold people accountability. $465 M county budget,
need transparency, records accountability, how offices operate, campaign
finance records. Regardless of political party can lead to
problems.

DB: Should county
commissioner meetings be morning meetings

DM: I made a
pledge four years ago and making another pledge now. Hold in early
evenings so people can come and see what county commissioners do. Let
people know what happens.

DB: how many
people usually attend

DM: other
than staff and those getting awards at beginning, 5 maybe 6.

DA: There are
actions being taken that affect us. If you attend one and can make
comment. You can’t speak until end, after commissioners have taken
action. When commissioners taking actions they should know what people
think.

DM: Right now
free agenda meeting. We will meet with department heads ahead of time.

DA: we took
an ethics pledge. Current commissioners took no action. We said no
politics on county time with county property. We took 5 point
pledge. Really shouldn’t be necessary. This is what people
expect. We are committed to that not just as a pledge but these are steps
we will take to address it.

DB: what are
other scandals? Examples of culture of corruption?

DM:
investigation of sheriff’s dept., funds that should have been spent on mental
health spent on lunches, Creekside voting place moved and people ordered not to
talk about it.

DB: wrap up?

DA: This is
not an office people think about but this office makes decisions that affect
people’s lives. You can have the biggest effect on everyday life.

DM: county
provides services. There are problems. Increase in number of elderly
needing help. We will be at least $14M short in budget. Must elect
quality people to office.

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